Returning from the awesome and tranquil Tonga we'd spend our remaining time in the region island hopping Fiji's western archipelagos of Mamanuca and Yasawa islands. An overpriced South Sea Cruises ferry leaves for the islands from Port Denarau, a 1F$ bus ride away from Nadi town, and takes a couple of hours to reach the Mananuca islands in the south. We head first for Mana Island, somewhat known for its decent diving and youthful backpacker scene.
And youthful it turns out to be, indeed; the average age seems to be well below 25 and the beach bar is packed every night till late. Great! There's even a dedicated guy from staff keeping the troops entertained, organizing beach volley, games and events in the bar, a bit like a supervisor in kids daycare :P The island itself is divided between 4 resorts, the biggest of which hogging the whole central part and not allowing others to cross their land. So exploring the island is limited to the beach and a couple of plains of tall grass. Oh well.
The next day after arrival we get the diving rumba going and visit a close by site called Mana Wall as well as their most famous site Supermarket. Both good dives with plenty of turtles and baby sharks, but nothing spectacular. But, ah-ha, the next day we're taken to Gotham City (named after all the big bat fish around) and Barrel Head, both of which are quite far out to the sea. Now this is really something, visibility occasionally reaching 40-50 meters and the waters are just packed with nice stuff to see, from leaf fish to turtles and sting rays to even a glimpse of a passing manta. We like the sites quite much and go to the same ones again the next day.
After 4 nights and days of partying and diving it's time to go, and we're taken on a small boat through rain and rowdy weather to the Beachcomber island, western Fiji's party central, where we change to the big boat heading north to the Yasawas archipelago. The weather's a bit depressing after weeks and weeks of sunshine, and little do we know that we're in it for the long haul. We pick Tawahu island as our next stop; supposedly home to more good diving and providing the proper peace and quiet after Mana Madness. But as it turns out the weather never clears enough in our time on the Yasawas to allow for good diving.
We settle in Otto & Fanny's guesthouse, located in a beautiful place on the better beach of the two, just a coconut's throw from the filming location of the Blue Lagoon movie, with smooth grass and swinging palm trees around the spacious Bures (Fijian for a bungalow). While the off season rate for the accommodation seemed pretty reasonable, the price for their buffet meals is quite high (140F$ for two eh - in Fiji we've spent avg. 30-40F$ a day). But when it's paytime they surprise us by adding a "20% govt. tax" as well as another 5% for credit card payment. While the latter was somewhat common in some other budget places, we'd never heard of the govt. tax trick before on Fiji. Oh and of course they add almost 100F$ worth of "transport fees" for picking you up with the small boat 2 minutes away, naturally without announcing this in advance. Sigh. At least the food they served was quite good, the staff exceedingly friendly and their dogs just lovely.
With the weather windy, gray and rainy, theres little else to do but eat three times a day, saving us the money spent on extra activities otherwise. We end up reading several books, me playing Nethack and we even improvise a laundry bucket off a waste bin and wash all our clothes. Also gave my backpacks "laundry section" a bit of a scrub to remove that stale swamp smell accumulated by wet sweaty laundry over the months. The nights are spent watching coconut crabs pass our porch on their way to the sea and hunting a spider the size of Riikka's hand that was creeping around in our mosquito net. We'd announced we'd stay for 5 nights but after 4 nights of not being able to dive we take off and head back to Nadi to take care of travel business - and enjoy way cheaper food & accommodation.
See all the Fiji pictures here!
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